Energy-Dissipation-Rate-Preserving Numerical Approximations on Staggered Grids for Rayleigh-Bénard Convection and Its Fast Implementation

Shouwen Sun , Liangliang Lei

Communications on Applied Mathematics and Computation ›› 2026, Vol. 8 ›› Issue (3) : 953 -971.

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Communications on Applied Mathematics and Computation ›› 2026, Vol. 8 ›› Issue (3) :953 -971. DOI: 10.1007/s42967-025-00481-7
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Energy-Dissipation-Rate-Preserving Numerical Approximations on Staggered Grids for Rayleigh-Bénard Convection and Its Fast Implementation
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Abstract

We develop a set of numerical approximations to discretize the non-isothermal incompressible hydrodynamic model for Rayleigh-Bénard convection (RBC), which ensures the negative energy dissipation rate with respect to adiabatic boundary conditions. Using the Crank-Nicolson (CN) method, the second-order backward difference method combined with the pressure-correction method, we propose two kinds of decoupled, linear, both second-order in time energy-dissipation-rate-preserving semi-discrete projection numerical algorithms. Meanwhile, the second-order fully discrete numerical algorithms are obtained by the use of a finite difference method on staggered grids in space. These numerical approximations are proved to preserve the property of the energy dissipation rate at the fully discrete level. Moreover, the numerical approximations are also unconditionally energy stable. The fast Fourier algorithm is applied to numerical implementation to enhance experimental efficiency. Convergence rate tests are conducted to verify the accuracy of the algorithms. Our simulations showcase that both hydrodynamic and thermal effects in resolving RBC within the non-isothermal hydrodynamic model of incompressible viscous fluid flow. In general, our structure-preserving projection schemes and implementation methods accurately and efficiently simulate RBC in nature.

Keywords

Non-isothermal flow of incompressible viscous fluid / Energy-dissipation-rate-preserving approximations / Pressure-correction method / Unconditional stability / Rayleigh-Bénard convection (RBC) / 65N06 / 65T50 / 76D05

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Shouwen Sun, Liangliang Lei. Energy-Dissipation-Rate-Preserving Numerical Approximations on Staggered Grids for Rayleigh-Bénard Convection and Its Fast Implementation. Communications on Applied Mathematics and Computation, 2026, 8(3): 953-971 DOI:10.1007/s42967-025-00481-7

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Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China(12101387)

International scientific and technological cooperation projects of Henan Province, China

Henan International Joint Laboratory of Optical Information Transmission and Application

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Shanghai University

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